NATO defence ministers are to meet in Brussels to discuss on the alliance\u2019s post-2014 operations in Afghanistan, cyber defence and providing Libya with security assistance and training.<\/p>\n
The talks came a day after alliance members decided to send a team of experts to Libya \u201cas soon as possible\u2019\u2019 to assess ways of providing assistance, NATO\u00a0Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n
The team would report back by the end of June, he added.<\/p>\n
The decision follows a request by Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, who visited NATO\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n
The task would be to provide Libya with advice in areas such as \u201cbuilding security institutions,\u2019\u2019\u00a0Rasmussen said, pointing to NATO\u2019s experience in this field.<\/p>\n
He stressed that no troops would be deployed to the North African country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are to engage in training activities, such activities could take place outside Libya,\u2019\u2019\u00a0the NATO\u00a0chief said.<\/p>\n
An attack last September on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed the ambassador and three other U.S. citizens, has raised questions about the safety of foreign personnel operating in the country.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen said the assistance would be \u201ca fitting way to continue our cooperation with Libya.\u2019\u2019\u00a0NATO enforced a no-fly zone to support the popular uprising that toppled the country\u2019s dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Afghanistan will feature on the agenda, but no decision is likely on the final number of troops and trainers to be stationed in the country after the NATO-led ISAF\u00a0mission ends in 2014.<\/p>\n
The budget for the follow-up operation still remains to be finalised.<\/p>\n
The 50 members of ISAF are due to adopt broad guidelines for the post-2014 training and support mission, Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of troops and trainers will be significantly lower than in the current ISAF mission and it\u2019s also our intention to ensure a regional footprint, that is a number of regional training centres,\u2019\u2019\u00a0the NATO\u00a0chief added.<\/p>\n
For the first time, cyber defence will also be on the ministers\u2019 official agenda, allowing them to discuss ways in which NATO could do more to protect individual allies if they come under attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cNATO already protects the networks which we own and operate, and we will continue to do so,\u2019\u2019\u00a0Rasmussen said.<\/p>\n
Days earlier, U.S.\u00a0Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, warned that cyber attacks originating in China were becoming a serious military concern that needed to be addressed urgently and amicably.<\/p>\n
France has also stated that cyber attacks could be considered an act of war in its \u2018white book\u2019 of defence guidelines issued earlier this year.<\/p>\n
But NATO members disagree over the role that the 28-member alliance should play in cyber defence, according to diplomats.<\/p>\n
While some smaller members want NATO\u00a0to play a more decisive role, others believe that bilateral assistance would be more efficient, one diplomat said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATO defence ministers are to meet in Brussels to discuss on the alliance\u2019s post-2014 operations in Afghanistan, cyber defence and providing Libya with security assistance and training. The talks came a day after alliance members decided to send a team of experts to Libya \u201cas soon as possible\u2019\u2019 to assess ways of providing assistance, NATO\u00a0Secretary-General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icttelecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}